Talk of restraint amid firing on LoC
We only retaliate: Army chief

New Delhi, Jan. 16: The Pakistan Army has asked its troops to maintain ceasefire on the Line of Control “strictly”, an Indian Army source said after talks between top officers of the two countries.

The Pakistan Director General of Military Operations (DGMO), Major General Ashfaq Nadeem, telephoned his Indian counterpart, Lt General Vinod Bhatia, and told him “troops have been ordered to be restrained and not allow the situation to escalate”, the source said.

“We have reached an understanding to not allow the situation to escalate,” the Indian Army source was also quoted as saying.

But Geo News of Pakistan reported that Maj. Gen. Nadeem called to register Pakistan’s protest over India’s violation along the LoC. The Pakistan Army said that Indian troops violated the ceasefire on Tuesday-Wednesday night in Hot Spring and Jandrot sectors between 10pm and 11pm, killing a soldier, a charge denied by the Indian Army that alleged Pakistani forces fired four times across the border on Tuesday.

Since Sunday, Indian commanders on the LoC have been given directives to retaliate with a volley of small arms and machine gun fire to any shooting from the Pakistani side. The directives also asked battalions to seek the nod of the higher command if the firing required artillery support. The directives were meant for commanders in three brigade sectors along the western stretch of the LoC.

India hardened its political resolve on Tuesday when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said relations with Pakistan “could not be business as usual” after the killings of two Indian soldiers on January 8.

The army chief, General Bikram Singh, had said on Monday that his troops “will retaliate at a place and time of our own choosing”, a statement that Pakistan’s foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar described as “warmongering” in the US. Late at night, she made an offer of talks with the Indian foreign minister.

Gen. Bikram Singh, who today visited the family of Lance Naik Hem Raj — said to have been beheaded by Pakistani troops who breached the LoC — said India was only retaliating to incursions.

“Our jawans don’t cross the LoC. We honour human rights. We fire in retaliation when provoked,” he said. The army chief is likely to visit the family of Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh in Siddhi, Madhya Pradesh, on Friday.

The DGMO-level talks are an institutionalised mechanism. Normally, the two DGMOs talk on the telephone hotline every Tuesday. Since the Indian DGMO was busy with Army Day events on Tuesday, the call came today.

Answering the Pakistani charge that one of its soldiers was killed, Gen. Bikram Singh said that “these are normal activities that take place at the LoC. We have retaliated in response to firing from across the line”.

Indian Army sources said Pakistani troops fired at their positions four times on Tuesday, the last being at 11pm in the Nangi Tekri area. “We gave a controlled response,” a source said. The Indian Army now counts 14 ceasefire violations by Pakistan in the 16 days this year.